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The money bail industry harms the most vulnerable. John Legend wants to end it now.

Imagine doing something dumb but relatively harmless in your youth.

Maybe stealing a T-shirt or smoking marijuana with a friend.

Instead of a reprimand and a way to make things right, you're thrown into jail at 15 years old to await your trial. Maybe if you're from a lower socioeconomic family in a larger city like New York or Los Angeles — where bail can run $2,000-$5,000 or more — neither you nor any close family members can afford to make bail.

So you're stuck, sitting, waiting, and spending some of the most important years of your life in a space that's historically inhumane and unsafe and a foundation for anger, loneliness, and depression.

This is the reality for thousands of teenagers and and adults across the country, and Grammy-winning musician John Legend wants to stop it.

Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images.

In a compelling video, Legend partnered with Color for Change to demand that the U.S. end the money bail system now.

The Truth About the Money Bail Industry narrated by John Legend

John Legend & Rashad Robinson "End Money Bail Now": fal.cn/MoneyBailOpEdCNNHonored to have partnered with John Legend’s FreeAmerica to expose this country’s corrupt for profit bail industry. Prosecutors build their careers by targeting Black and Brown people, selling off our freedom, and driving up mass incarceration. Enough is enough! If we want to drive mass incarceration and police violence down, we need to step up and make prosecutors answer to us. Share this and donate to #EndMoneyBail: bit.ly/EndMoneyBailNow

Posted by Color Of Change on Monday, May 21, 2018

He discusses how the system is similar to predatory loan systems and disproportionately affects people of color.

"While many white people charged with crimes largely spend their time before their trial free, district attorneys and judges have different rules for black people, for poor people, demanding bail in the first place and setting it far out of reach financially and threatening them with long sentences if they don't take a plea," Legend explains in the video.

A former English major and lifelong proponent of social justice for all, Legend made a compelling case to end the system that corners people of color more than others and often throws off young, promising, and redeemable lives.

He demanded that we hold our governments accountable on changing the decadeslong system.

Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for WGN.

So what exactly is the money bail system?

It's the monetary system that technically prevents suspects from committing any other criminal acts while they await trial and aims to ensure they abide by the judicial process. But the system is largely corrupt — according to a study by the Pretrial Justice Institute, the first commercial bail bond business started in San Francisco in 1898, functioning as a payoff scheme among crime bosses, judges, lawyers and police.

This tradition of the rich and empowered benefitting from the bail system has persisted well into the current day. If you are wealthy or have someone in your life who is, you can post the proposed bail amount and re-enter society regardless of whether you committed the crime or not. However, if you don't have the money, a petty crime can force you to remain in jail for months or even years.    

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

"In America, you're better off being guilty and rich than innocent and poor," Legend says.

Such was the case for Kalief Browder, a teenager who Legend references in his video. Browder was a mere 16 years old when he was put in jail for three years after being accused of stealing a backpack. Unable to make the $3,000 bail, Browder was forced to reside in Rikers Island, one of the most notorious prisons in America. Browder went through traumatic experiences while incarcerated and ultimately committed suicide after he was finally released.

It's a traumatic story that broke the hearts of thousands around the nation, but it's a story that's all too common for our nation's poorest individuals, particularly those of color.  

In the video, Legend explores how the for-profit bail bond industry makes money off freedom and why it's imperative to our morality as a nation that we end it.

"Hundreds of thousands are pulled out of school, pulled out of their jobs, pulled out of church, pulled out of their families and communities, trapped in an oppressive and racist criminal justice by prosecutors, judges, bail bondsmen, and everyone else who profits from it," he notes.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Color of Change partnered with Legend's Free America campaign — a campaign that aims to end the prison industrial complex — to surface the commercial bail bond's inhumane industry practice of cash bail. And other celebrities are supporting his mission.

New York state gubernatorial candidate and former "Sex in the City" actress Cynthia Nixon made a public declaration of her support to end the problematic system.

Nixon, along with Legend, noted the connections between the money bail system and mass incarceration and how we can dismantle one by dismantling the other.

So, how can the system change?

According to Legend, it starts with everyday citizens like you and me.

"We're going to win," he says. "Our communities are going to win. Our families are going to win. Justice is going to win."

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After 20 years in and out of prison, a guard told her she’d be back. She proved him wrong.

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When her 5-year-old son was killed, Susan Burton lost her way.

He was playing outside and ran into the street, where a car hit him. In the blink of an eye, Susan's life as she knew it was over.

She unraveled, and his death led her down a dark spiral. Susan turned to drugs and alcohol to medicate her grief, which resulted in a number of arrests. The life she’d envisioned and worked toward had ended abruptly, and she began a cycle of being in and out of prison over 20 years.

Watch Susan's story:

A New Way of Life gives formerly incarcerated women the support they need to change their lives for the better. A Starbucks original series.

Posted by Upworthy on Tuesday, September 13, 2016

When Susan was released from prison for the last time, the guard said, "You’ll be back. We’ll have a bed waiting for you."

Susan vowed that wouldn't be the case. But she knew firsthand how hard it can be to reenter society after incarceration.

The reality is that the prison system in America is deeply flawed. The majority of prisoners who leave jail wind up behind bars again within a few years after their release. According to a 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Justice, "67.8% of the the 404,638 state prisoners released in 2005 in 30 states were arrested within 3 years of release, and 76.6% were arrested within 5 years of release." Things in 2016 aren’t much different.

All images via Starbucks, used with permission.

It took years, but with the help of her community, Susan was finally able to break her cycle.

Susan had tried repeatedly to get back on track, but because of her record, she couldn’t find a job or treatment programs for her addictions. When she finally found support within her community, Susan became sober, found a steady job, and, most importantly, began to heal.

She wasn’t content just to keep herself out of jail; she wanted to help others, too. "I knew hundreds of women that just needed a few months of support to just be able to stand on their feet and not return to prison," she said.

Susan worked hard, saved her money, and purchased a house. She then turned her new house into a reentry home.

What started as an individual effort quickly grew. A New Way of Life Reentry Project was born.

Today, she’s helped over 1,000 women to get a new lease on life.

Because no matter how they wound up in prison, so many of their stories are the same. These are women who grew up with big dreams like so many of us do but who wandered down the wrong path and couldn’t find their way back around.

A New Way of Life offers them a supportive community where they can face their biggest fears associated with reentry and tackle the systemic barriers that stand in their way. Because it isn’t easy to get a job when you’ve been incarcerated. And it’s not easy to qualify for student loans to return to school. Finding a permanent home is another huge hurdle, and there are so many more. The best way for these women to face those challenges without feeling hopeless and overwhelmed is together.

A New Way of Life is tackling America’s incarceration crisis head-on, and the work it's doing is undeniable.

Last year, the project had a recidivism rate of 13%. Compared to the national average, that’s a huge success rate and a strong indication that what they're doing is working.

Susan said, "It’s a vicious cycle to return to the environment that led to your incarceration, and it happens over and over again. That is the cycle that I’m trying to break. That is the cycle that we must break."

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8 prisoners in Texas broke out of their cell ... and saved a guard's life.

At first, Nick Kelton thought his guard was playing a prank.

Kelton, a meth addict who has been to prison three times already, found himself watching from a holding cell at the Parker County Jail as a guard, who had been talking and joking around with the group of inmates only moments before, slumped over in his chair.

"He just fell over. ... It looked like an act," Kelton told local Texas station WFAA.

Nick Kelton (right) and another inmate telling their story to WFAA in Texas. All images via WFAA/YouTube.

It quickly became apparent, however, that this was no joke. Something was wrong — the guard had suffered a heart attack.

The eight inmates in holding started yelling for help, banging on the walls, trying to get someone's attention.

The Parker County inmates watching as their guard falls unconscious.

When no one came, the prisoners took a drastic and potentially dangerous measure: They broke out of their holding cell to save the guard.

A quick check on the slumped guard revealed that he had no pulse, so the prisoners continued making a commotion, trying to get the attention of prison officials in the building.

Nick Kelton (left) and his fellow inmates helping the guard.

"I was worried," Kelton said, that "they're gonna come with their guns drawn on us."

Hearing the commotion, a group of deputies rushed in from upstairs, corralling the inmates and calling the paramedics.

While the guard was unconscious, all eight inmates had access to his gun and keys.

"It could've been an extremely bad situation," said Sgt. Ryan Speegle.

Instead, it was a moment of heroism.

Thanks to the prisoners making so much noise and risking breaking out of their holding cell, the guard's life was saved. The deputies were able to arrive on the scene quickly and call paramedics, who defibrillated the unconscious guard.

Paramedics reviving the guard as the inmates watch from the cell.

When someone has a heart attack, responding as fast as possible will increase their chance of survival. After cardiac arrest, you often have only minutes to take medical action.

The guard, who is expected to return to work next week, was saved by the very people he was guarding.

Despite the troubled life Kelton has lived, a man got to return home to his family because of him.

“It never crossed my mind not to help, whether he’s got a gun or a badge. If he falls down, I’m gonna help him,” Kelton said. “He’s a good man.”

Watch the dramatic full video here:

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Why a criminal history shouldn't stop students from getting their life back on track.

Everyone deserves a fair shot at getting on the right track.

Keri Blakinger is a felon. She's also an Ivy League graduate.

After graduating from Cornell University in 2014, Blakinger found a good job and moved on with her life. But she watched too many women she spent time with behind bars — women who were equally motivated to put their pasts behind them — struggle to find their footing after prison.

"I was incredibly lucky," Blakinger, who was convicted of a drug-related crime in 2010, wrote in The Washington Post last year.

Photo by Jay Paul/Getty Images.

Right now, receiving a diploma — a key factor that helped Blakinger get on the right track — is out of reach for many people with criminal histories.

While colleges don't outright bar people with criminal backgrounds from applying, it's certainly a weighted consideration during the admissions process. What's more, if you're an ex-con, simply knowing you have to disclose your criminal history on the application might deter you from even applying (because, what's the point if you know it'll greatly weaken your chances?).

Fortunately, that tide seems to be changing for the better.

On June 10, 2016, the White House asked U.S. colleges and universities to stop considering an applicant's criminal history during the admissions process.

"This is about persuading institutions to do the right thing with respect to how they admit their students," Secretary of Education John King told The Atlantic. “This effort is about removing arbitrary obstacles.”

Photo by Olivier Douliery, Pool/Getty Images.

The announcement is part of the White House's Fair Chance Pledge — an effort to encourage both businesses and higher ed institutions to consider retooling their hiring practices and to press student admissions to give people with criminal histories a chance at bettering their lives.

The pledge makes sense for people like Blakinger. Not only has past research suggested there's no empirical evidence suggesting screening students for criminal histories makes campuses safer, but doing so also can actually exacerbate existing problems, like grappling with our massive prison population — a group that's disproportionately people of color.

The White House's new effort is a big win in more ways than one.

The decision not to consider criminal histories — a move several schools, including Columbia University, Arizona State University, and Blakinger's alma mater, Cornell, have already enacted — benefits marginalized groups and can help keep people out of prison.

Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images.

Seeing as our prison population is disproportionately nonwhite, allowing more former inmates to access education after serving their sentences (an effort that has been known to curb recidivism) would mean more black and Hispanic Americans choosing school, rather than relapsing into criminal behavior.

There's already been significant progress on this front too. Earlier this year, the Department of Education worked with the creators of the "Common App" — a standardized college application used by about 700 schools across the country — to change the wording of the question that asks applicants about their criminal history.

Considering that question often keeps many people from applying, the tweak is expected to encourage more students with criminal backgrounds to take the leap and go to school.

Obama hasn't just talked the talk on this issue, either — last November, he walked the walk when it comes to the federal government's hiring practices.

The president issued an executive order that ended the requirement of applicants to federal positions to disclose if they've been convicted of a crime. The order essentially "banned the box" that ex-cons would be forced to "check" on applications revealing their criminal history.

"We can't dismiss people out of hand simply because of a mistake they made in the past," Obama said in a speech addressing the order.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

To Blakinger, who's used her platform to fight for change, giving people like her a second chance is a no-brainer.

"If we want to lower the crime rate, we need to make education accessible to former inmates," she wrote. "Banning the box on college applications not only gives people a chance to rehabilitate their lives, it also makes our communities safer."

Blakinger shouldn't be one of the "lucky" ones: Everyone deserves a fair shot at getting on the right track.

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